What are the long term effects 5 yrs and after?

[sunhead]

Maybe I haven't found the right keyword search, but I can find very little on how the transplanted hairs survive long term, say 5 years and later.

 

I'm aware that once you've started the whole process is a lifetime one. But is this because the natural hair needs to be replaced around the grafts, or do the transplanted hairs suffer long term shock loss according to an article I've read?

 

It does seem we've come a long way in the last 5 years, and maybe the HT process is a lot more sophisticated and the standards are higher nowadays. But I'd hate to have patchy hair after 10 years with no donor area and being unable to shave it due to the scars.

 

What's the long term strategy then?

 

By the way, I'm committed to my first HT with Dr Path (Bangkok) mid August, so any explanation will not stop me continuing with it. Just wanting to know what to expect. I'm a 64 yr-old NW6 with 4000 grafts planned.

[Shampoo]

A hair transplant is just one part of an over-all game plan.

 

One problem after a hair transplant is that the hair that is all around the transplanted hair is still very susceptible to DHT destruction.

 

So if someone gets a transplant and refuses to take the meds, all the hair around the transplanted hair may very well continue to fall out eventually giving the appearance of a balding look again.

 

So hair preservation involves at least two things, #1. getting hair transplanted into already thinning areas and then #2. using meds to greatly slow or prevent all the non-transplanted hair on top from continuing to fall out.

 

By preserving the hair you still have with meds and adding additional non DHT susceptible hair with a transplant a patient can often can get a pretty good "illusion of density" and decent head of hair.

[sunhead]

OK, that's interesting and encouraging - are you saying that shockloss is preventable after the HT?

[s2thoudriver]

If you are likely to thin further in your native hair areas, it is advisable to have some dense packing done, i.e transplant grafts into the existing thick areas that are not yet effected by DHT.

 

Also, don't forget, that the recipient density will unlikely be as dense as your existing hair, so gradual loss of the native hair should be un noticeable through a gradual thinning/loss.

 

My strategy was to fill my balding receding areas and have dense packing in the centre and frontal region of the remaining native hair, to help eliminate the prospect of a patch look 5 years down the line.

 

By that time, hair cloning will be in full swing and i can fill any subsequent areas with new hair grown in the lab :-)

[Bobilero]

Considering Stem cell , hair cloning and hair multiplication are not that far away from the mainstream i think FUE is the only way to go at the moment to buy yourself some time.

 

I wouldnt pay too much attention to people with vested interests who constantly push strip on people on here.

[s2thoudriver]

Too close to cloning now to consider anything other than FUE.

 

I can't wait for hair cloning to become available, I'll be buying it to add density to the whole of my head :-)

 

Rob

[scar5]

I wouldnt pay too much attention to people with vested interests who constantly push strip on people on here.

 

?? Are you on the wrong meds? lol

 

this.

[scar5]

 

I can't wait for hair cloning to become available,

 

I wouldn't count on it,

[s2thoudriver]

... i would count on it, In Turkey they have been refining hair cloning for the last 4 years. They have successfully cloned and grown hairs and have transplanted them into trail patients.

 

Once they are happy with the results after a certain period, it will become readily available.

 

I am going to be contacting the surgeon who did my HT over the weekend to try and get more detail on the process, the results etc etc but i have been told that 2013 is looking very promising :-)

[Al - Moderator]

... i would count on it, In Turkey they have been refining hair cloning for the last 4 years. They have successfully cloned and grown hairs and have transplanted them into trail patients.

 

Once they are happy with the results after a certain period, it will become readily available.

 

 

I hope something becomes available soon, but before you get too sure of it, let me give you some parts of an article I have. This is from July 11, 1995. That's 1995, not 2005. 17 years ago and it still hasn't become available. I can tell you that articles similar to this were around from at least 1989 because I read them when researching my own HT. I just don't have them saved.

 

-----

In a promising step in studies of hair growth, researchers at a biotechnology company in California have found a way to fire "bullets" at hair follicles...

 

"We think this delivery system opens the whole hair-loss field to the possibility of gene therapy".

 

… "we found that the skin growing in culture produced hair. This was a big breakthrough". The ability to produce hair bearing skin in the lab provided the researchers with a means for screening "molecules that could modify hair growth."

 

… the next step was to test whether the liposome delivery system could be used for gene therapy.

 

...the so-called lacZ gene deposited the gene in the hair follicles near the base of the hair shaft.

 

...a dermatologist at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center in Salt Lake City, said his research team has performed similar experiments "and we've been pleasantly surprised at what can be done with liposomes via the hair follicle.

-----

[Shampoo]

plus does anybody really know if and when this ever happens...

what will the costs be when it first comes out?

all this medical research isn't free

 

so even after it finally becomes available...cloning and stem cell hair procedures could be very expensive for several years.....sure it may be possible to grow unlimited amounts of donor hair "one day".....but it's not going to be like it's dirt cheap...at least not in the beginning and it will still probably involve surgery and just the surgery in and of itself can be pretty pricey.

 

i am hopeful that new technology enables big leaps in hair transplantation..

guys in their twenties & early thrirties may be able to wait it out.....

but for many the waiting game is taking too long and we gotta take the leap now.

 

there are still so many unknowns about cloning and stem cell in regard to hair

tranplants that I feel it's not at all irresponsible for folks to be still be advocating FUT procedures

it's a proven successful procedure

 

as always 2EachHisOwn

[aim4hair]

I really have high hopes in Histogen which might be available within 3 to 5 years but who knows.

As for cloning as to take one graft and clone it and have unlimited supply in one session i think we still need along time to see this happening.

As for the stemcel procedure it is available now and it promises at least 80-85% re-growth at the donor area, i don't think it is expensive but the problem is that you can't have many grafts in one session since the maximum is 2000 and then you have to wait 9 months between sessions.